Making Human Rights “Fundamental”: Johannes Chan And The Entrenchment Of The Hong Kong Bill Of Rights Ordinance

Abstract

<p><em>Drawing on declassified archival documents including records of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the British Government, this article traces how the distinct and unprecedented feature of the entrenchment of the Hong Kong Bill of Rights Ordinance (Cap 383) (BORO) was introduced, against the bigger backdrop of deteriorating Sino-British relations after the Tiananmen incident of 4 June 1989, and the active role played by the very few legal scholars who specialised in human rights law in Hong Kong, particularly Johannes Chan, in the process. This article will also summarise how such an important entrenchment design facilitated the development of "entrenchment” jurisprudence by the colonial judiciary in its decisions on the BORO in the 1990s, and how such jurisprudence survived the handover and provided the foundation for further development of human rights jurisprudence by the courts of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region after 1997</em>.<br></p>